(no subject)
All for the Heir
This is a story right after Alexander's death. Roxanne decides to do something she has got to do. Perdikkas faces another dilemma.
Feedback is appreciated........
The tears dried upon her cheeks as she watched the spectacle of the struggle for power and possession after his death. They fought over who should claim his body, the lifeless body which had lost weight and seemed so pale that she tried to rub her eyes and make her vision clearer.
She sat in the well appointed harem which no longer had a keeper, wishing she had married some Sogdian or Bactrian chief's son and led the kind of life she had always visioned herself leading. But five years ago, the Great King had been so besotted by her that overnight he had made up his mind of marrying her. Many mouths told her he was fond of only men, had a male lover who he could die for and was only marrying her for political reasons.
She did not have a say in the entire matter, women were not supposed to have a say, but Roxanne was different. She had been more beautiful than any of her kin and many confessed that she could have been second only to Queen Stateira in her unparalleled beauty. But these were word of mouths, she was sure most of them had never seen the Queen, only heard of her beauty. Roxanne was sure her beauty far surpassed that of any mortal women, she could give the benefit of the doubt to the goddesses though. She had a spirit which was fiery and volatile, even her own mother feared her.
She slowly moved to the trunks which hosted the expensive and lavish gifts her late husband had bestowed her with. Taking them out she laid them on the huge bed and lay down beside them. Now the bed seemed not so huge anymore, she was sure the bed would now remain empty for the rest of her life. Besides, these gifts and a smattering of words he used to praise her, which was not often, was all that her husband meant to her. She had given him her heart, he had carefully held his own, back. Oh, how she cried her eyes out during the first year of her marriage when she discovered all rumours to be true. The King did have a male lover. He even had a eunuch who was probably dearer to him than she was.
How vividly she remembered her wedding night. He had been gentle to a fault, she had felt no pain when her barriers broke, but he had finished before she had her fill. with all her strength she had tried to pull him back but he was always eager to go, once he had spilled his seed inside her. Slowly she wondered whether she would ever bear a child. When she finally did, the baby was born dead. Her husband was sorry for that and gave her more presents, there were gifts even to her father. But all he did in terms of companionship was to come in to ask about her health and leave. Once it had gone too far, she had been made to wait for 3 months and when he finally came to see her, she had flung herself on him, scratched and bitten him and kissed him on the lips. He was dumbfounded by the boldness and pushed her away, but she did not stop pursuing her goal. Finally he had relented and she had found sexual ecstasy for the first time after nearly 3 years of marriage. Strangely however, he could not manage a climax and had left as soon as he saw her face flushed and body throbbing with pleasure.
She felt strangely empty when after being informed that she was with his child, he had once again made lavish offerings to her but discussed little about his plans for the child. Then he had fallen ill, soon after her hated enemy Hephaistion's funeral. She paid him visits everyday and he seemed to sink deeper into the illness till one day he breathed his last. She had cried aloud, drained of the hope that once his male lover was dead and his eunuch lover had outgrown him, she would become his wife and not just a woman in his harem. She loved him and though he almost never reciprocated her feelings, she felt happy knowing that he cared for her and honored her. Yet even that source of happiness had ebbed away.
Now, it was all chaos, all messy. She heard that Ptolemy and Perdikkas were literally at each other's throats and so was Seleucas, Eumenes and Nearchus. Non one knew who was fighting whom. She despised the fact that everyone forgot that the heir was still in her womb.
With a start, Roxanne sat up. Her child, he deserved to be the heir, he had to be the heir. How could she forget, she was not secure without an heir to the kingdom and her unborn child, her precious child would be relegated to the background if she was not strong enough. It was time to act.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roxanne sat upright and looked sternly at the chief eunuch who stood with lowered eyes in front of her.
"My lady, but this is murder ....."
"That is what you think and you are not paid to think but to do my bidding. If you falter, I will have your hide instead."
"As your ladyship pleases"
The Eunuch backed away. Roxanne started pacing the room. The messenger must have reached at a great speed to have outsped the news of Alexander's death. Stateira and Drypetis were on their way and were due to arrive by next dawn. They would be relieved of their earthly possessions soon.
Roxanne stroked her stomach, "I am doing this for you my son, I have lost everything, but you will not. History will regard me as a vile and evil woman but which woman would not be evil to protect her offspring."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Perdikkas looked at the wine in his cup, it gave off his own faint reflection. He laughed at himself, he looked like a fool. The holder of the official seal ring and regent for the dead king's unborn child. yet, he was least interested in power and any associated glory. His word had partly crumbled when his friend Hephaistion had died and the rest had shattered when Alexander died a few days ago. He felt a strange unrest in his soul, there was a strange calm around, like the dead calm before the storm. He gulped down his wine trying to clear his head. Every morning, he did not know where he was to start from and where was it all going to end.
Had he not foreseen this. Hephaistion had told him in the first days of his illness that he had a kind of premonition that things would go downhill from then onwards. First his death, then Alexander and then the power struggle, things were getting as worse as they could get. Perdikkas hoped with all his heart that he would be able to do what was expected of him, protect the unborn heir of the large kingdom.
Suddenly he heard a rustle at the door and there stood his page, whose face seemed so ashen that his heart leaped to his mouth.
"What is the matter boy?"
"My Lord, in the well there at the entrance to the city ........ something so horrible has happened."
"Why don't you tell me what it is and stop acting as if you have seen a ghost," Perdikkas said irritably.
"2 women, their dead bodies have been thrown in the well, they look highborn." The page semed to break down.
Perdikkas waited no more for the page to regain his composure but rushed out and mounted his stallion. In minutes he was at the well where a crowd had gathered. in the crowd were 2 soldiers of the Macedonian army. One of them saluted Perdikkas and said sadly, "We are having them pulled up, they seem to wear very fine clothes, they must be of good lineage. Their throats had been slit and they have bled to death."
Perdikkas covered his nose as the bodies were pulled up by ropes. He gasped as he saw the faces which, though half mutilated still retained some resemblance to the princesses who married Alexander and his Vizier Hephaistion only a few months ago.
Just then a group of men pushed through the crowd and brought before Perdikkas a big burly man who was clad in rags and bleeding all over from being beaten up mercilessly.
"Sire, he has done this, look this woman here saw him killing the 2 ladies, they were begging for mercy." said one of the guards.
"He must have done this for their jewelery," said the other guard.
Perdikkas looked at the 2 bodies and realized that no jewelery had been stolen. This murder had a different motive. He ordered the guards to bring the man to his quarters.
An hour later the man was dead, mounted on a wooden mast and displayed in the streets as an example to all who ever thought of killing. No one knew what he confessed in Perdikkas' presence.
Back in his room Perdikkas asked his page who had recovered somewhat to take his message to the lady Roxanne. He had assured her he would be on her side, he felt the act was wrong but understood the need of the hour as the unborn child was the only thing Alexander had left behind of flesh and blood. Already his legacy and achievements seemed history, the future was so uncertain and the present such a turmoil.
Perdikkas blew out the lamp by his bedside and that of his conscience at one go and retired for the night.
This is a story right after Alexander's death. Roxanne decides to do something she has got to do. Perdikkas faces another dilemma.
Feedback is appreciated........
The tears dried upon her cheeks as she watched the spectacle of the struggle for power and possession after his death. They fought over who should claim his body, the lifeless body which had lost weight and seemed so pale that she tried to rub her eyes and make her vision clearer.
She sat in the well appointed harem which no longer had a keeper, wishing she had married some Sogdian or Bactrian chief's son and led the kind of life she had always visioned herself leading. But five years ago, the Great King had been so besotted by her that overnight he had made up his mind of marrying her. Many mouths told her he was fond of only men, had a male lover who he could die for and was only marrying her for political reasons.
She did not have a say in the entire matter, women were not supposed to have a say, but Roxanne was different. She had been more beautiful than any of her kin and many confessed that she could have been second only to Queen Stateira in her unparalleled beauty. But these were word of mouths, she was sure most of them had never seen the Queen, only heard of her beauty. Roxanne was sure her beauty far surpassed that of any mortal women, she could give the benefit of the doubt to the goddesses though. She had a spirit which was fiery and volatile, even her own mother feared her.
She slowly moved to the trunks which hosted the expensive and lavish gifts her late husband had bestowed her with. Taking them out she laid them on the huge bed and lay down beside them. Now the bed seemed not so huge anymore, she was sure the bed would now remain empty for the rest of her life. Besides, these gifts and a smattering of words he used to praise her, which was not often, was all that her husband meant to her. She had given him her heart, he had carefully held his own, back. Oh, how she cried her eyes out during the first year of her marriage when she discovered all rumours to be true. The King did have a male lover. He even had a eunuch who was probably dearer to him than she was.
How vividly she remembered her wedding night. He had been gentle to a fault, she had felt no pain when her barriers broke, but he had finished before she had her fill. with all her strength she had tried to pull him back but he was always eager to go, once he had spilled his seed inside her. Slowly she wondered whether she would ever bear a child. When she finally did, the baby was born dead. Her husband was sorry for that and gave her more presents, there were gifts even to her father. But all he did in terms of companionship was to come in to ask about her health and leave. Once it had gone too far, she had been made to wait for 3 months and when he finally came to see her, she had flung herself on him, scratched and bitten him and kissed him on the lips. He was dumbfounded by the boldness and pushed her away, but she did not stop pursuing her goal. Finally he had relented and she had found sexual ecstasy for the first time after nearly 3 years of marriage. Strangely however, he could not manage a climax and had left as soon as he saw her face flushed and body throbbing with pleasure.
She felt strangely empty when after being informed that she was with his child, he had once again made lavish offerings to her but discussed little about his plans for the child. Then he had fallen ill, soon after her hated enemy Hephaistion's funeral. She paid him visits everyday and he seemed to sink deeper into the illness till one day he breathed his last. She had cried aloud, drained of the hope that once his male lover was dead and his eunuch lover had outgrown him, she would become his wife and not just a woman in his harem. She loved him and though he almost never reciprocated her feelings, she felt happy knowing that he cared for her and honored her. Yet even that source of happiness had ebbed away.
Now, it was all chaos, all messy. She heard that Ptolemy and Perdikkas were literally at each other's throats and so was Seleucas, Eumenes and Nearchus. Non one knew who was fighting whom. She despised the fact that everyone forgot that the heir was still in her womb.
With a start, Roxanne sat up. Her child, he deserved to be the heir, he had to be the heir. How could she forget, she was not secure without an heir to the kingdom and her unborn child, her precious child would be relegated to the background if she was not strong enough. It was time to act.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roxanne sat upright and looked sternly at the chief eunuch who stood with lowered eyes in front of her.
"My lady, but this is murder ....."
"That is what you think and you are not paid to think but to do my bidding. If you falter, I will have your hide instead."
"As your ladyship pleases"
The Eunuch backed away. Roxanne started pacing the room. The messenger must have reached at a great speed to have outsped the news of Alexander's death. Stateira and Drypetis were on their way and were due to arrive by next dawn. They would be relieved of their earthly possessions soon.
Roxanne stroked her stomach, "I am doing this for you my son, I have lost everything, but you will not. History will regard me as a vile and evil woman but which woman would not be evil to protect her offspring."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Perdikkas looked at the wine in his cup, it gave off his own faint reflection. He laughed at himself, he looked like a fool. The holder of the official seal ring and regent for the dead king's unborn child. yet, he was least interested in power and any associated glory. His word had partly crumbled when his friend Hephaistion had died and the rest had shattered when Alexander died a few days ago. He felt a strange unrest in his soul, there was a strange calm around, like the dead calm before the storm. He gulped down his wine trying to clear his head. Every morning, he did not know where he was to start from and where was it all going to end.
Had he not foreseen this. Hephaistion had told him in the first days of his illness that he had a kind of premonition that things would go downhill from then onwards. First his death, then Alexander and then the power struggle, things were getting as worse as they could get. Perdikkas hoped with all his heart that he would be able to do what was expected of him, protect the unborn heir of the large kingdom.
Suddenly he heard a rustle at the door and there stood his page, whose face seemed so ashen that his heart leaped to his mouth.
"What is the matter boy?"
"My Lord, in the well there at the entrance to the city ........ something so horrible has happened."
"Why don't you tell me what it is and stop acting as if you have seen a ghost," Perdikkas said irritably.
"2 women, their dead bodies have been thrown in the well, they look highborn." The page semed to break down.
Perdikkas waited no more for the page to regain his composure but rushed out and mounted his stallion. In minutes he was at the well where a crowd had gathered. in the crowd were 2 soldiers of the Macedonian army. One of them saluted Perdikkas and said sadly, "We are having them pulled up, they seem to wear very fine clothes, they must be of good lineage. Their throats had been slit and they have bled to death."
Perdikkas covered his nose as the bodies were pulled up by ropes. He gasped as he saw the faces which, though half mutilated still retained some resemblance to the princesses who married Alexander and his Vizier Hephaistion only a few months ago.
Just then a group of men pushed through the crowd and brought before Perdikkas a big burly man who was clad in rags and bleeding all over from being beaten up mercilessly.
"Sire, he has done this, look this woman here saw him killing the 2 ladies, they were begging for mercy." said one of the guards.
"He must have done this for their jewelery," said the other guard.
Perdikkas looked at the 2 bodies and realized that no jewelery had been stolen. This murder had a different motive. He ordered the guards to bring the man to his quarters.
An hour later the man was dead, mounted on a wooden mast and displayed in the streets as an example to all who ever thought of killing. No one knew what he confessed in Perdikkas' presence.
Back in his room Perdikkas asked his page who had recovered somewhat to take his message to the lady Roxanne. He had assured her he would be on her side, he felt the act was wrong but understood the need of the hour as the unborn child was the only thing Alexander had left behind of flesh and blood. Already his legacy and achievements seemed history, the future was so uncertain and the present such a turmoil.
Perdikkas blew out the lamp by his bedside and that of his conscience at one go and retired for the night.